John Claiborn Willis, the 25-year-old Slidell man accused of beating his parents to death with a hammer, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity this morning. Judge Raymond Childress ordered that he be evaluated for sanity at the time of the offense as well as his current state of mind.

Willis stood calmly next to attorney Marion Farmer, who told the judge he was standing in for Willis' attorney Kevin McNary, who represents all clients charged with first degree murder for the public defenders office.

Willis, charged with two counts of first-degree murder, has been held at the St. Tammany Parish Jail on a $1 million bond since his arrest in November.

Assistant District Attorney Nick Noriea, who is prosecuting Willis, could seek the death penalty against him. He asked the judge this morning to set a trial date as soon as possible.

Willis had lived with his parents, Lewis and Helen Willis, on Northwood Drive near Slidell. On the night of Nov. 15, they asked him to take on more household chores and, authorities say, he retrieved a hammer, bludgeoned his mother first and then his father. Both died of severe trauma.

He then threw the hammer alongside the road nearby, hid bloody clothes in a drainage ditch a half-mile away and went back home to stage a robbery.

He will be evaluated by a panel of mental health professionals, which will render their opinion of his competency to stand trial for the killings.